The Sprout: Trade surplus, feisty squirrels and a jumping cow

Good morning and welcome to the Sprout, where your host, who’s herself had to deal with feisty squirrels, can sympathize with this Toronto convenience store owner who’s gone a little nutty thanks to a furry bandit who keeps swiping chocolate bars.

Now, here’s today’s agriculture news.

The Lead:

Canada has posted its first trade surplus since 2014 thanks to exports buoyed by increased shipments to countries outside of the United States. Statistics Canada said higher exports of steel and non-metalic products also helped spur the 4.3 per cent jump. AsReuters reports, volumes rose by 3.5 per cent while prices climbed by 0.8 per cent.

In Canada:

Worker compensation claims from Alberta farm workers have doubled a year after controversial new labour legislation was introduced, triggering widespread protests across the province. As The Calgary Herald reports, Workers Compensation Board statistics show there were 793 farm injury claims accepted by WCB in 2016, compared with 339 the year before.

Internationally:

Let them eat cake? Brazilian President Michel Temer’s government is under fire after it was revealed they’d ordered more than 400,000 tonnes of food to stock the government plane in 2017. On the menu? Five hundred cartons of Häagen-Dazs ice cream and nearly 1.3 tonnes of chocolate cake (someone’s got a sweet tooth). The order was cancelled hours later amid public outrage. The Associated Press has the story.

Monsanto has posted a quarterly profit thanks to increased demand in South America. As Reuters reports, soybean seeds and trait sales jumped 37 percent as more farmers in South America used the company’s genetically modified soybean seed Intacta RR2 Pro.

Russia’s agriculture minister has increased the country’s grain export projections, again. An alert from UrkAgroConsult says Aleksander Tkachev said the former Soviet superpower has 119 million metric tonnes of grain. Export potential was raised to 40 million metric tonnes. The full alert can be found here.

Battle lines are being drawn in the debate over genetically modified foods. Farmers and food companies are facing off over claims non-GM products are more sustainable than their GM counterparts. As The Western Producer explains, the tipping point appears to be yogurt maker Dannon’s decision to shift its Dannon, Danimals and Oikos brands of yogurt to all non-GM ingredients by 2018.

And, CNN investigates why there’s always a mad dash to stock up on milk, bread, and toilet paper before a major snowstorm. (Folks in the Maritimes will tell you they always make sure to add #stormchips to their lists, too.)

This year in food will be notable for Persian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European and South American foods (The Calgary Herald)

The Kicker:

Small children have known about bovine jumping capabilities for years – after all cows have been jumping over the moon for decades, right? Now, one New Zealand teen has taken it one step further. Hannah Simpson wanted a horse. Instead of admitting defeat, she taught her cow Lilac how to ride and jump rails. The two have been inseparable ever since.

That’s your agriculture news for this week. Have a fantastic weekend and we’ll see you Monday.